Kalahari Rhyolite (ex Willard Wulff Collection)

Item Description

A rarely seen piece of what is labeled as "Kalahari Rhyolite" on the back of the stone. Frankly, I can't remember seeing a piece of this material before, but it comes from a trusted source, the collection of Willard Wulff, and it very well could have come from a very limited discovery years ago. Now we labeled the locality as "Kalahari Desert, Southern Africa" because this area covers 900,000 square kilometers and extends over most of Botswana, along with parts of Namibia and South Africa. The world Kalahari translates from the local language as "thirsty land ". This piece is a beautiful "Oval Cabochon" cut stone featuring swirling bands of sandy, caramel, brown and beige colored Rhyolite. A beautiful and large stone that would make a great addition to any collection of cabochons or unusual gems. As I mentioned, the stone comes from the collection of Willard W. Wulff Sr. (1904-1998) of Colorado Springs, Colorado, a prominent figure and collector of Colorado minerals. Wulff was one of the founding members of the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society in 1936. You can read Willard's bio on the Mineralogical Record website here ( http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?colid=1528 ). Later in Wulff's life, he took an affinity to cutting cabochons, and this particular stone was in fact cut and polished by Wulff.